Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Since yesterday I covered Kien's birth story, today I wanted to catch up on a few stats on Kien at age two. He is such a funny character and though I know time will fade my memory of these days, I wish I could record and remember every detail of this precious little person's childhood.

Weight: 31 poundsHeight: 38 inches—will find out for sure at next week's wellcheck

Fave Things: -Sports- any kind though right now the fascination is baseball

-Stuffed animals-he's fond of his Winnie the Pooh right now and sleeps with him at night

-Dancing-right now he likes to dance to the Turbo Jam DVDs- he's so weird J

-Slides-he loves going down the slides at playgrounds and is not timid at all

-Cousins-he loves to play with his cousins and has funny sounding names for them. Caselyn and McKoy are both just "A-coy", Ava is "A-ya", Ellie is "Eh-yee" and Sophia is "EEE-AAAA"

-Climbing-he is into climbing everything right now, especially the counter top in the kitchen.

Stuff he Says:

-"A-go, A-pooh, a-daddy etc….. "This is where is (insert thing), so when he's looking for his Winnie the Pooh it is "Ah pooh?"

-"No No no-o"- This one's hard to get without hearing him say it. This is "I Don't Know" but he says it in a sing-songy kind of tone.

-"Bup"- This is what he says when he wants "up" on something. He will come to you or the thing and tap on it and say "bup, bup"

-"Gank ku"- This is "thank you" It sounds like thank you but he starts it with a "G" instead of "th". He says this ALL the time and is a very polite boy. Anytime anybody gives anything to anyone he calls it a 'gank ku."

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Today my little monkey turns two years old. I can't believe it has gone by that quickly! It amazes me that he has been with us for two whole years now and I can't imagine what my life would be like without him.

I wanted to take the opportunity to write down the story of his birth in honor of his day today.

On Saturday, June 20th, 2009 Jess and I spent the afternoon at family's house for a birthday party for his Grandma Dudley. Surprisingly though the sunny skies turned dark and a huge rainstorm caused us all to dash inside and bring the picnic in with us. At this stage, I was huge and was scheduled for an induction the coming Thursday.

One of Jesse's cousins jokingly said to me "You better be ready tonight because they say that thunderstorms and the pressure change from the weather turning can cause you to go into labor."

Whatever, I thought. I haven't even felt a single contraction so I doubt that's happening.

We had to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home because we had a friend and his wife spending the night at our house and we wanted to buy more pillows to make sure we had plenty for everyone.

Then, we went home and hung out with Courtney Roper and his wife, Britney. Courtney had rented a movie from Redbox called Fireproof and we were all groaning because it looked so cheesy. But we put it in around 10 pm and started to watch. Britney was the first to fall asleep and went in to bed soon after…..Then about 30 minutes later, Jesse fell asleep and went to bed also. So, it was just Courtney and I left watching the movie until about 12:30 that night.

As soon as it was over, I went to bed as usual.

The next thing I knew it was 7:00 am and I was waking in bed with very painful contractions. I told Jesse that I thought I was in labor and we needed to pay attention for the next contraction to see how far apart they were. Only two minutes later, another contraction came on suddenly.

Jesse called his mom to ask if she thought we needed to go to the hospital right away, (even though I already knew we should). She said TWO minutes?! Yes, go to the hospital. Even if it ends up being nothing, you're better off safe than sorry.

We hurriedly brushed our teeth and threw on some clothes. Jesse went and knocked on the guest bedroom door and told his friend Courtney that we needed to go to the hospital because I was having contractions. But I said to them not to worry because I was sure it was going to be false labor and they would just send us home. Ha!

We went to the car, our black Honda, and started the ten minute drive from our house to Mountain View Hospital in Payson. While we drove, I called my parents and let them know that we were on the way to the hospital and that my contractions were very strong. My mom assured us that she and my dad would hop in the car and head our direction right away.

When we arrived at the hospital, Jesse parked in the first row of the lot and we walked into the building. I was waddling a bit, but for the most part I was walking just fine under my own power.

When we got up to the labor and delivery ward, there were a few nurses at the desk just getting started for the day. It was only 7:45-ish by this time. We said to the nurses "I need someone to come and take a look at me because I think I am the early stages of labor…." The nurse looked at me standing there on my own and asked a few questions. They sent Jesse back downstairs to the registration desk to check us in while they took me into one of the delivery rooms to see how I was progressing.

After the first nurse came and took a look at me, she walked out to the other nurse and I heard them whispering and then the other nurse came in as well and took a look at me. I wasn't sure what was going on at this point but another contraction was coming on strong.

Finally, Jesse got back up to the room and when he arrived the nurses told us that I was fully dilated and effaced and ready to start pushing any time. They couldn't believe that I had walked into the hospital, up the elevator, and into the labor and delivery department on my own that way. They thought I must have an extremely high pain tolerance and had probably slept through much of my labor.

At this point, we'd only been at the hospital about ten minutes. Our doctor had been paged but was doing an emergency c-section at another hospital 20 minutes away. It was a Sunday, so the anesthesiologist was just on call and not on-site. He had also been paged, but so far he hadn't responded to the pages.

So, that's when I started getting scared……really scared. I had always planned for a slower labor using an epidural with my doctor standing by…But suddenly I was faced with the reality that this little baby was coming soon and my doctor was nowhere in sight and neither was the epidural. I started hyperventilating because I was so scared and the nurses put me on an oxygen mask to get me to calm down. They continued to call the doctor and anesthesiologist to get their status while they tried to keep me calm as best they could.

Suddenly (and thankfully) the anesthesiologist came rushing into the room. He apologized and said he had been in the shower when his pager went off the first time. Luckily he lived close by and dashed over as soon as he saw the page. He said that since I was so close to delivering that the epidural may not even have time to kick in before, so he gave me a local anesthetic along with the regular epidural. At that moment, he was my favorite person in this whole world, and Jesse says that I kept telling him that….repeatedly.

At the same time I was receiving the epidural, my doctor also came rushing into the room. He had finished his c-section in Provo and had driven straight to Mountain View to help with my delivery. So, now all the important pieces were in place and I relaxed a little bit.

Within five minutes of arriving, my doctor put on his gown and told me to push. Four pushes later, and our son, Kien Edward, was here.

They quickly checked him over and cleaned him up and declared him perfectly healthy weighing 6 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long.

He was born at 8:50 am on Sunday June 21st, 2009-Father's Day. So from the time I woke up to the time he was born was one hour and fifty minutes. I had arrived at the hospital and delivered him all in time to still eat the breakfast that the nurse brought in.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Today I celebrate my four year wedding anniversary with Jesse. I can't believe it has already been four years since that day. So much has happened since then that it just amazes me to look at where we are now and then to look back at where we were then. It's just like that Brad Paisley song "I thought I loved her/him then....."

Happy anniversary, Jess! I can't think of anyone I would rather have spent the last four years with, and I look forward to forty plus more in the future together.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Those who know me well know that I am a complete bookworm. I am the type that always has a book with me wherever I go—just in case I find a snippet of free time, I certainly wouldn't want to be caught with nothing to do. J

The book I'm reading right now, The Mormon Way of Doing Business by Jeff Benedict has been pretty interesting. It is about 8 businessmen who have reached the very top of success by adhering to a very different standard because they are LDS. Here are just a few of the men that are spotlighted in this book:

-Dave Checketts, former President of the New York Knicks, and CEO of Madison Square Garden Corp.

-David Neeleman, founder and CEO of JetBlue Airways

-Kim Clark, former Dean of the Harvard Business School

-Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte and Touche financial services firm

Anyway, so the book talks about some of the habits that have helped these men get to the top of their industries. One of them that was common for all of them was their commitment to continued learning and study.

Each of them spends time every day in study of the scriptures.

Each of them also devotes time each day to reading good, enlightening books. One of the men said he has a personal habit of reading three books simultaneously: one on a gospel topic, one a non-fiction book such as personal development or a historical biography and the last would be their choice.

MY GOAL

For the next 12 months, I would like to adopt this as one of my goals. Each month I will select 3 books to read: one gospel topic, one non-fiction, and one fiction because I enjoy it. Along with this I want to spend some time each day studying the scriptures.

My books for November:

GOSPEL:The Mormon Way of Doing Business-I am only about a third through this, so I need to commit to finishing this before selecting a new one for this category

NON-FICTION:Driven by Larry H Miller-a biography of this great business man's life

FICTION:The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins-everyone talks about it and I've been waiting to read it

Do you have any recommendations for next month's books in any category??

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

So, I promised that a catch up post was soon to come—so without much further ado-I give you the summer of 2010. My how the time has flown by!

May

Kien's First Surgery

So, from January to May of this year, Kien had FIVE diagnosed ear infections. Needless to say, it was miserable for him and for Jess and I because he wouldn't sleep very well, he was irritable, and he would get really high fevers that would spike around 103 in the middle of the night.

So, finally after a lot of thought, we decided it was time to get P/E tubes placed in Kien's ears to help with infections. We took him to the surgical center on May 27th where they gave us all name tags that said "Kien", "Kien's Mom" and "Kien's Dad." They even gave Kien a little stuffed lion toy with a t-shirt that said "I Ain't 'Lyin' I Had Surgery at Central Utah Surgical Center."

All the nurses in the surgical pre-op ward thought he was hilarious. He was so thrilled and excited with all the fun sights and sounds around him and thought it was just awesome to wear his little blue surgical cap and yellow baby hospital gown.

He came through like a champ and 5 months later has not had a single ear infection since!

June

The Klampets (errr…I mean, the Grovers) go to Hawaii

These definitely aren't the best pictures from the trip and I will do another post with some better ones.

On June 3rd, a week after Kien's ear surgery, the whole Grover family (2 parents, 7 kids and kids-in-law, 3 grandkids, 2 aunts, and 1 uncle hopped a plane to Honolulu.

We wanted to do a big family trip before Brett left on his mission so Hawaii it was!! We spent 4.5 days on Oahu taking in sights like Hanauma Bay, Waikiki, The Polynesian Cultural Center, the Cheesecake Factory (oh...sorry-is that not a sight??), etc...

Then we headed to Jesse and I's favorite place EVER. The island of Kauai. We had rented an awesome house in Princeville near Hanalei Bay. If you've never been there, it is the most beautiful place ever. It's where movies like South Pacific, Jurassic Park, parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more were filmed.

Kien’s FIRST Birthday!! -June 21, 2010

Shortly after returning from Hawaii, Kien turned one year old! I can't believe my baby is ONE!

On June 30, Jesse's baby brother, Brett left on his mission to the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Spanish speaking mission.

We love you and miss you Brett! We are happy to say after 5 months though that he is doing fantastic and enjoying himself very much. He's currently serving the Lord faithfully in Stillwater, Oklahoma on the campus of OSU.

JulyIndependence Day

On the 4th of July, Kien and his cousins were part of the Sandy Children's parade near Little Cottonwood Canyon. We spent all night on July 3rd decorating wagons, bikes, etc... so that they could parade in style.

Kien’s first (and I hope-I really hope-last) broken bone

On July 21st, Jesse and I both noticed that Kien was really whiny and wouldn't put any weight on his right leg or try to stand up. It was really worrying us and we thought maybe he sprained an ankle or something like that.

So the next morning I took him over to the pediatrician to get it looked at. They sent him to the hospital next door to get x-rays and lo and behold Kien had a broken tibia in his right leg.

Needless to say, I was an emotional wreck because neither Jesse nor I could pinpoint exactly how it had happened.

Because of his age and the type of fracture, the pediatrician (which was not our regular pediatrician I might add but just the dr. on duty that day) sent us to Primary Children's hospital to get a full body x-ray scan on Kien. Basically, they wanted to rule out child abuse as the cause of the break.

Jesse and I were distraught. We couldn't figure out how the break had happened and just the mention of "child abuse" is enough to send any parents into hysterics.

Obviously the full skeletal scan came back with no evidence of abuse (Well, DUH!).

Anyway, my bro-in-law is a PA that has a specialty in orthopedics and broken bones etc.... We talked to him that evening after all of the hoops we'd had to jump through and he told us more research about Kien's fracture that reassured us a bit.

A spiral fracture of the tibia in a child of Kien's age is commonly referred to as a "toddler's fracture." It is the most common break a toddler can have and occurs usually when a child who is learning to walk twists his foot while falling down or something similar.

So, Kien got a gigantic camouflage cast for 4 weeks through July and August. He still managed to get around really well and get into everything in spite of the cast.

The only bummer about this is that having a cast during that time has delayed Kien starting to walk on his own. :(

August

Kien's First HairCut-

Kien is very lucky to have a daddy and a grandpa who are both career barbers. So, when the time came for him to have his very first haircut, we headed to Brad's Barber Shop where his Daddy cut his hair.

He was so thrilled because he had been to visit Dad at the barber shop countless times but had never had the chance to be the one in the barber chair.

He was wiggly obviously, but overall he was really good.

Yes that is me and Aunt Ashley grinning and acting like goobers in the mirror. This is pre-haircut.

This milestone makes Jesse a little emotional because it reminds him of pictures of himself as a baby in the barber chair receiving his first haircut from his own father.

So, in a way its like watching time come full-circle for him and every time he talks about it Jesse expresses how much he loves our little Kien and how much he loves his own father and the chance to spend every working day right next to him in the barber shop.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

So, its been six months since the blessed day that Kien arrived and I began my slow descent from the weight gain of pregnancy.

Granted, I have already lost a significant amount of weight. How did I do it? Giving birth--obviously.I have already lost nearly all of the weight I gained over the course of my pregnancy, minus about 10 pounds....But I could stand to lose another 20pounds in addition to that, so I feel like I've got a ways to go yet.

And for whatever reason-it's making me feel a little Grinchy today. Perhaps its because of the holiday season and the constant presence of all sorts of "Who-Hash" and every day a party where we sit down to feast. And we feast. And we feast. And we FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!

So, maybe because of that, or maybe its because of my four pound setback on my descent down the slope of weight gain, I'm feeling a little annoyed about it today. Boo to the people that leave the hospital fitting back into their regular jeans. I reject them! (But secretly wish I could be a part of your exclusive club).

Hence, the title to my post. Down with Miley Cyrus and her ballad of encouragement to all. Because today, it is SO not the climb.

Now, back to my usual cheery self.****

Happy freakin' holidays.

****Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this tirade are the brief personal opinions of the blog owner and in no way reflect the general holiday attitude of said blogger. She is actually quite excited about Christmas and the holiday season and wishes each and every one of you a Happy and Merry!